Improvement in postage and other stamps



UNITED' STATES ABRAM J. GIBSON OF WORCESTER, MASS., ASSIGNOR TO EDWARD LIVER- MORE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AND JONATHAN LUTHER, OF WORGESTEB,

MASS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 4H,] l8, dated January 5, 1864.

To all whom it may concern: 1

Be it known that I, ABRAM J. GIBsoN, of the city of Worcester, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in- Postage, Revenue, and other Stamps; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same;

The stamps at present in use for postage and inland revenue can, after having been canceled, be easily restored beyond detection except by the most careful examination, owing to their being printed solely with indelible ink, and to the inks commonly used for their cancellationviz., printers ink for postage-stamps and writing-ink for re.venue-stampsbeing of a fugitive character. The object of my invention is to preven t the restoration of such stamps, and thereby to protect the'Government against loss by their fraudulent second use; and to this end it consists in printing such stamps partly or wholly with fugitive ink, the impression of which will be destroyed or v removed by the means that would be likely to be employed for'the removal of the fugitive ink employed in their cancellation.

The ink employed for the fugitive impression of the stamp may be mixed in the same way as the common printers ink used in letterpress printing, or prepared with any menstruum or medium that will be easily dissolved by water, soap and water,or alkalies. The impression of the stamp may be produced partly by indelible ink and partly by a fugitive ink of the'same or a ditferent color applied by a I separate and distinctprinting process. The plan which I at present deem in most respects the best is first to print the stamps in the manner commonly practiced from an engraved plate, in which the characters are sunk in intaglio, the ink used being of the same indelible character now commonly used for the purpose, and afterward to produce an impression upon it in fugitive ink from a wooden or electrotype-block by the process, known as letter-press printing, or from a stone or other surface, by the process known as surfaceprinting, thecolor of such fugitive ink diii'ering more or less from that ofindelible ink used ,for the first impression, and the characters of I which it is composed covering only such parts of the paper as are not covered by the first impression, or forming a light net-work, which will not obliterate or seriously impair that impression, but the absence of which in case of their removal from the stamps by the removal of the cancellation will be at once detected.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- The printing of postage and revenue stamps, or other stamps of similar character requiring cancellation, with an impression or impressions made'wholly or partly in fugitive ink, which will be destroyed or. removedihy the destruction or removal of the ink employed for their cancellation, substantially as herein described.

, ABRAM J. GIBSON. Witnesses:

- DANIEL ROBERTSON,

R013 H. LoUnaN. 

